When it comes to selling a product or service through your business, which might very well be based mostly online, you must keep two main ideas in mind. Anyone who approaches your site coming from a search engine is looking for a solution, and anyone who is returning to your site is looking for a want (at least in a majority of cases).

If you released an eBook or sell some other type of service, there is a good chance that there is a competing company/entrepreneur who is trying to convert their visitors, too. In the end, if your sales copy doesn’t work, they’ll choose the competition. Bad for you, good for your competition.

Benefits Versus Features

A benefit can be defined as “the help that you get from [something] or the advantage that results from it.” On the contrary, a feature is simply “an interesting or important part or characteristic of [something.”

If I were to list some of the features of this site, they might range from “providing blog tips” to “providing resources for anyone who wants to build a better blog.” These “features” don’t do much for me or my readers. There really isn’t anything there that makes someone want to visit my site, who has never wanted to start his or her own blog.

However, these features work if I am trying to convert a first-time blogger to starting a blog. They appeal to them, as they have never visited a website on the subject.

Benefits. These are the words and phrases that will convert your visitors into customers, your visitors into readers, and your customers into repeat customers. After someone visits your site, reads your “about” message, and remains on your site, they have obviously been converted by some reassuring content on your site.

Promising and Not Delivering

Whenever one talks about features, they are stating facts. Features are essentially the elements of your product that one can see immediately. They are the tools brought together into a single product that can really benefit someone that uses it.

Looking for a tool that can manage my email easier, I find one that offers a set of ten features, but lacks one that can truly benefit me. The product simply lists the most common features, but doesn’t really tell me what sets it apart from the competition. I am convinced to use this product, as it doesn’t entirely solve my problem? No.

I move on, and find one that contains the features, describes how they work, and the true benefits that they provide. I am convinced. I’ll be using their service until a better alternative comes around, which further solves my problems.

No matter what kind of product or service you offer, it is key to only state what your product offers, rather than promises that you plan on adding, promises which aren’t really there. There is a clear difference between a promise/benefit and a fact/feature.

Your Blog – How YOU Stack Up

Creating and developing your blog, how do you feel your stack up? Can you list a set of benefits your blog has compared to the millions of others that may have already been setup within your niche? If not, think about ways that you can.

Perhaps you don’t really need to add any new features to your blog, but you need to add content that really illustrates what you offer. It’s all about solving the larger problems, then addressing the smaller problems, and then creating the solution for your visitors.

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